United Nations Police and AU will boost their cooperation. That’s the outcome of various discussions held among the two entities on 2 and 3 August.

A 3 days retreat brought together last week in Addis Ababa United Nations Top Officials from The Rule of Law and Security Institutions, the Police Division, Heads of Police Components from UNMISS, UNISFA, UNAMID, MONUSCO in addition to Officials from the UNOAU, the African Union and the Standing Police Capacity.

Hosted by UNISFA in partnership with the United Nations Office of the African Union (UNOAU) and the Ethiopian Federal Police, the retreat served as an information and experience sharing platform. One of the major outcomes of the meeting is the announcement made by Commissioner-General Zeynu Jemal of the Federal Ethiopian Police Commission, that “50 trained female officers are ready to be deployed for service in UN peacekeeping missions”.

During the retreat Mr. Zuev and Police Adviser Carrilho paid several visits to representatives of the African Union, the UN Office to the African Union and the University of the Ethiopian Federal Police. The major discussions were dedicated to ways of enhancing the cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union with the aim of achieving more effective and result oriented police keeping work in the field.

Participants agreed to further foster cooperation in accordance with the Action for peace (A4P) Initiative launched by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at a Security Council High-Level Debate on 28 March. The initiative targets three main areas: refocusing peacekeeping; making peacekeeping missions stronger and safer; and mobilizing greater support for political solutions and for well-structured, well-equipped and well-trained forces.

Building up on the Santos Cruz report to change the way the United Nations does business in high-security risk peacekeeping operations, is another action point of the retreat.

Discussions also included gender parity, prevention, mediation, response, addressing root causes as well as strengthening partnerships to resolve conflicts.